Elizabeth A. Miklavcic - Choreographic Works
Canopy - Performed May 1982

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Canopy (1982)

Choreographer: Elizabeth A. Miklavcic
Music: (Video Credits)
Costumes: Elizabeth A. Miklavcic
Set Design: Elizabeth A. Miklavcic
Set Design & Construction: Jimmy H. Miklavcic
Dancers: Wendy Millar, Wendy Thompson, Jeanne Travers
Location: University of Utah Modern Dance Department Theatre 208, Salt Lake City, Utah
Length: 9:09 minutes
Description
Elizabeth choreographed Canopy (originally titled Cocoon) in 1982 as her final project toward earning her Bachelors of Fine Arts Degree from the University of Utah Modern Dance Department. It took a long time for her to be able to articulate what this dance is about. She is of the opinion that if you can articulate the feeling or expression in words then why create a dance? Dance is a different form of expression and yet choreographers are more-often-then-not asked to "explain" what they are doing.

Canopy is about the repression of women, how women are expected to remain in boxes, shrouded, and hidden. The women throughout this dance are fighting to emerge, to be seen, to break free. The veil is a representation of the shroud and the moving chairs represent containment and confinement. Even though there is movement in the chairs, there is a dependency that the women keep going back to, even though they are attempting to break free throughout the dance. Emergence, as if from a cocoon, is the final statement of the dance as the women slowly and finally begin, in different stages, to walk away from their confinement.

Please keep in mind that this video was recorded in 1982 for documentary purposes.